Strange Rcs Behaviour?

[Jt_737]

Hi all,

My shrimp issue has a bit of a back story, so just sit tight and I'll condense it the best I can.

On February 22 of this year, I purchased 15 rcs while I was in Edmonton, and made my way back home to Airdrie. Being in school at the time, I was too busy to set up the tank I had planned for them, so I simply filled a 4 gallon plastic container with water from one of my established tanks, put in a small heater, mini filter, and an assortment of fake and live floating plants along with a cheap fluorescent bulb from home depot. Every weekend, I would come home from school, change the water and feed them either an algae wafer or a bit of blanched spinach. I rarely tested the water. About 3 weeks later, I had 2 berried females - and 3 weeks after that, I had over 50 rcs. I was amazed at how easy it was to care for them! The only thing I noticed was that the shrimp weren't really red at all, they were clear.

When school ended, I went about setting up the tank that was originally planned - a 5.5 gallon, planted with a mix of ADA and fluorite and capped with sand. I transferred the same heater into it, upgraded the filter and added some lava rocks from my fire red shrimp tank that was in my dorm (which I also brought home.) Anyway, on May 3, I siphoned the water from the plastic container into the new rcs tank and slowly acclimated them (since there was a bit of a temperature change.)

During the next few days, I took out two dead shrimp, one very small, and one 4 times as big. Which was strange, because I tested the water to see if anything was wrong and the parameters looked like this: Nitrate:10ppm, Nitrite:0, KH:90ppm, GH:150ppm, pH: 7.4. Not only that, the other shrimp seemed better than ever, and were starting to turn a nice bright red. So I thought perhaps it was nothing to be concerned about. On May 8th, one of my favorite females died. Before she passed, I noticed it seemed like she was having trouble molting or something, because there was a large white slit in between her carapace and 1st abdominal segment, which I'd never seen before. The next few days were fine, no deaths and the baby shrimp started to turn red too

On May 11th, I did a 30% water change and re-filled with the same dechlorinated tap water I always use.

May 13th, 14th and today, I picked out mostly eaten dead shrimp! (They were all the older males I had since February! ) In the past, I haven't really witnessed any shrimp eating a fallen comrade - I've always removed them whole. I tested the water today, and the parameters are Nitrate:10ppm, Nitrite:0, KH: 150ppm, GH:300ppm, pH:7.1, which is very different from the last testing. So here are my questions:

1. How often should I be feeding my shrimp? Are algae wafers and blanched spinach enough, or should they have more variety?

2. How long does the typical shrimp live? (I've heard 1-2 years...)

3. How long does it take a newborn shrimp to reach adulthood (I've heard 3 months?) and yes, 2 and 3 probably depend on temperature of the water.

4. Should I change any of the above parameters to something more suitable?

5. How many shrimp can live in 5.5 gallons? I'd venture to say I have about 40 now. Is that a fair amount?

I don't inject co2 and I don't fertilize. (I also don't use prime, as was warned against in a previous post.)

It seems counter-intuitive to me that the shrimp would do so well in a plastic container, yet rather poorly in a planted tank...

Anyway, thanks in advance to any shrimp expert who responds to this incredibly long post, your help is appreciated!

[Iceturf]

I'm no shrimp expert, but.... Random loose thoughts here:

What are your ammonia levels? I wouldn't cap ADA personally, its more of a decorative thing in my opinion - and you get nice water circulation into the roots from the uniform roundness. Also, ADA leaches ammonia for a few weeks when first used. They spray it with the stuff. I would suspect that if your ADA is brand new, that is the problem right there. You may have slowed the problem by capping the ADA with sand.

Otherwise, as you say, I see no reason why your shrimp wouldn't fair just as well in one container as in another.

I'm of the impression that shrimp naturally 'adjust' their population to their tank environment, meaning they will grow to fill the food supply and roughly level off there. So given a constant food supply, you shouldn't ever more than your tank can handle.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Iceturf

[Lisbeth]

I wish I could help you out with more of your questions, but I consider myself still a RCS newbie despite having them for a couple of months now. Anywho, in addition to what's already been said about the ADA substrate...

I had a similar die off when I migrated my shrimp and had (what I consider to be) perfect, cycled, water conditions. It looked like a few of the shrimp were dying due to bad molts and it was really distressing. In my case (and also maybe yours if it isn't the substrate), I believe it was the gH that was too high. If you're also using plain 'ol dechlorinated Calgary tap water. I ended up getting a TDS metre because I found it was easier to measure in addition to kH/gH testing. Anyway, through slowly changing out water with filtered stuff, I brought down my TDS from 300+, to where it sits now between 170-200. Doing that completely halted my die offs.

As for feeding... I have a population of probably 50+ now. I only feed them once, sometimes twice, a week (I may have to up how often I feed as my numbers increase and the babies get larger). I also have a fully planted tank that they seem to graze endlessly on. I try to only feed them what they can manage to eat in an hour. If it's still there after an hour, then I take it out. So far I've been rotating between feeding them a couple things: blanched cucumber which they seem to love, 1/2 of a topfin algae thin, a pinch of omega one slow sinking veggie micro pellets, and today I tried a pinch of Hikari shrimp cuisine, which they went wild over.

[Jt_737]

Thanks for the responses, Iceturf and Lisbeth :thumbs:

First off, I had no idea that ADA was sprayed with ammonia!!! But in light of that information, I now understand a few issues I've had had with other tanks along the way. Yeah, I did cap it for decorative purposes, I'm quite a stickler for aquarium aesthetics - the white sand seemed a better contrast to the green plants, the rust red lava rocks and the red shrimp if you know what I mean. I did my weekly water change three days ago, and carefully cleaned the sand bed but exposed a bit of the ADA in the process. The day after that, I noticed another dead baby shrimp :cry: which would correlate with the ADA and ammonia issue (though I didn't get a chance to test the water because the carpets were being shampooed.)

I've been considering getting a TDS metre for a while now, (since reading an article about tap water usage in aquarium settings..) maybe now is the time! Would you recommend the purified/filtered store bought water, or RODI water? I know the latter tends to have a lower pH, (usually neutral or lower, depending) but if I phase out the dechlor. tap water slowly I hardly think the change would present any problems, aside from being better in the long run.

Also thanks, Lisbeth, for your advice on different foods. My shrimp seem to be tiring of the spinach, so I'll certainly try the other things you mentioned.

My only remaining concern is what to do about the ammonia slowly leaching out...do I simply wait for it to be done? Should I be very careful with the substrate while cleaning so as not to disturb it? Ack, this is such an important lesson to learn, but such an unpleasant process!

[Iceturf]

I have a tank with light sand and a dry tank with ADA. I prefer the dark and uniform look of the ADA, I feel like it is better colour contrast. Something to consider maybe.

What to do.... I'm not sure. Do you still have that plastic container setup you can move the shrimp back to in the short term, let the tank finish leaching and then move them back?

[Jt_737]

Oh, you must be talking about ADA amazonia, whereas I have malaya! I quite agree, the dark and uniform look of the amazonia is very pleasing to the eye. Malaya isn't nearly as nice a color, in my opinion. Maybe in the future I'll try the whole amazonia-by-itself thing

I still have the container, but I'll need to get a new heater for it and retrieve that mini filter I used. It seems like a lot of moving, but if things get any worse, I think its simply the best thing to do. Thanks for all your help!

[Tigweldpro]

Older topic but...

The ADA substrate does leach ammonia and also buffers the waters PH down. RCS(neocaridina) like HARD tap water with 12-18 dgh. Plants are a must for any shrimp especially moss. Your water tests should come out 0/0/0 even if feeding everyday. Ramshorn snails are also a very great tank mate for shrimp cleaning up and pooping out shrimp food :S

Most common problem I have with shrimp is planaria and hydra. Dosing some planaria killer every few months will take care of both of those and keep the small snails in check.

Hung Lee at SKA shrimp in Calgary is an amazing shrimp resource lookup on FB.